Massachusetts jumps into Big Data

Advances in computing in recent years have spurred a proliferation of digital information, including some data sets so large they're aptly called Big Data.

The world generated 2 exabytes of data in the year 2000. Last year, we generated 2 exabytes of data every day, EMC Corp. executive Patricia G. S. Florissi told a crowd at Worcester Polytechnic Institute last week.

But the real story of Big Data has yet to play out. “The Big Data story is unwritten,” she said. “We are living it now.”

International Data Corp., a Framingham-based IT research firm, estimates the Big Data market will grow from $3.2 billion in 2010 to $16.9 billion in 2015. That's seven times the growth rate of the overall information and communications technology market.

The Big Data industry already employs about 12,000 people in Massachusetts, according to the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council Inc., and the state is poised to add thousands more Big Data jobs here.

State officials this year launched the Massachusetts Big Data Initiative to foster the Big Data sector here with a grant program, an internship program and other initiatives.

Ms. Florissi, global chief technology officer of sales at EMC, came to WPI to give a lecture about Big Data and what it means. What is Big Data? Any data sets so large that they break traditional IT standards, she said. Where is Big Data? Everywhere. Whom does it impact? Everyone.

The data deluge, as she put it, is being driven by social media, mobile phones, geophysical exploration, video surveillance and more. The data universe includes everything from amateur Facebook photos to codes that track the human genome.

The surge in data has led to the growth of the field of data analytics.

Big Data has become a focus at WPI, where some professors are conducting research with health care data. Andrew C. Trapp, assistant professor in the School of Business, who does work for WPI's Healthcare Delivery Institute, said he's examining breast cancer patient information to look for trends.

“We can track certain genes as they're progressing,” Mr. Trapp said. “We can say there are certain pathways that are related.”

Hopkinton-based EMC, the data storage giant, is also growing its Big Data business. The company broke ground last year on a data center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where it will mine data for the oil and gas industry. Through data analytics, for example, oil companies can learn where they should drill to extract oil below the ocean floor.

Retailers have learned how to analyze data to cull information about their customers. Target Corp. famously mines data to determine which customers are pregnant women — then sends them coupons for diapers and other products they will need when they become mothers. New parents are valuable customers for big-box retailers.

Companies want to know the customer's mind trail, Ms. Florissi told students at WPI. They want to know not just what the customer bought, but what led to the decision to buy.

Ms. Florissi, a native of Brazil, shared with the crowd a story about the day she received her seventh-grade report card. She was proud of herself — and expected extra Christmas presents — for getting a 97.3 average. Her parents, though, were not pleased. They thought the high grade indicated her school was not challenging her enough.

The point, she said, is that data has not one story, but many. She asked students, when studying data, to consider: “What is not there?”